NY Times Editorial Underscores AHF Concerns on HIV Prevention Pill

Following the CDC’s release earlier this week of its public
recommendation for widespread scale-up of the controversial HIV
prevention strategy known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a May 15
New York Times editorial raises several significant concerns regarding
the use of Truvada as PrEP as a possible method of HIV prevention.

The editorial echoes grave concerns that AIDS Healthcare Foundation
has been raising about PrEP for the past several years, including a
worrisome potential for a drop in condom use and an alarming rise in
STDs, for which PrEP offers no preventive effect.

May 16, 2014 07:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A May 15 editorial
in the New York Times regarding the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public recommendation of the
widespread scale-up of the controversial HIV prevention strategy known
as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) underscored several significant
concerns regarding the use of Truvada as PrEP as a method of possible
HIV prevention that AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been voicing for the
past several years.

While many hail the daily ingestion of this potent chemical as a
game-changer in prevention of new HIV infections, the Times’ editorial
highlights several important concerns that mirror the worries AHF
has voiced regarding a drop in condom use leading to a rash of new STD
infections, including the already pervasive disease syphilis.

Though a balanced piece, the editorial echoes many of AHF’s concerns
about Truvada as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) when it states, “The
pill is supposed to be used along with condoms and other safe sex
practices to provide added protection, but many men could shun condoms
knowing that this option is available. The dangers of that behavioral
change are worrisome. Unprotected sex could lead to higher rates of
syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as
unwanted pregnancies. If people fail to take their pill every day, as
many will, they will increase the risk of developing and spreading a
resistant strain of the virus.”

AHF President Michael Weinstein expressed the same public health
concern in a statement Wednesday, saying, “What about other STDs like
syphilis, which has seen a resurgence approaching epidemic proportions
in some of the same communities that the CDC wants to target for PrEP?”

Less than a week before its public endorsement of PrEP on May 14, the
CDC released a report
on May 9 stating that syphilis rates have more than doubled for gay men
in the U.S. since 2000. There were more than 16,000 cases of primary and
secondary syphilis reported in 2013, 91% of which occurred in gay men,
the report stated. The director of the CDC’s division on STD prevention,
Dr. Gail Bolan, was quoted as calling “this rising epidemic of syphilis
among gay and bisexual men” a “consistent, disturbing trend.” Bolan went
on to say she was unsure of why the disease was making such a
resurgence, adding “we think it’s a mix of social and individual
factors.”

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS
healthcare provider in the USA. AHF currently provides medical care
and/or services to over 300,000 individuals in 32 countries worldwide in
the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Asia. For
more information, visit www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @AIDSHealthcare.